Subscription Options

Saturday, January 12, 2008

I was inside all day today (and will be all day tomorrow) at a convention center near the Atlanta Airport at the BirdWatch America Show. This trade show for the wild bird industry is where lots of vendors come to try to sell their products to lots of wild bird stores.

All day I was talking to people about bird stuff, new products, trends, ideas, mergers and acquisitions, and so on. I enjoyed it but would have been overjoyed to have been birding outside, instead.

I did see a small sharp-shinned hawk as we entered the trade show POD today. That and a song sparrow were the extent of my day's bird list. Kind of ironic given the focus of this trade show on actual wild birds.

7
comments:

Ah, poor B. Wish you could have walked with us today. Liam found a jawbone he's pretty sure is from an herbivorous dinosaur, perhaps Iguanodon. It's not even fossilized yet. We must've gone four or five miles through the woods. Lots of sapsuckers and pileateds. Robins by the dozen! And the redtails are courting!! Hurry home.

Not many birds living out by Hartsfield? :c) Heck, hop on I-75 headed north for and hour and half, and you'll be here on Chickadee with us! We could offer a few more birds and some killer veggie soup. Have fun in Hotlanta!

That's something I hate about vet conventions. I get to go to a lot of cool places, like San Francisco or Orlando or Kansas City or Columbus, OH (OK, not every convention is at a really cool place!) but I spend all my time inside. When people ask me what I saw or did, the answer is always the same: Sat in lectures, visited the vendors' booths, ate lunch at the food court.

That's why I try to tack on a couple of "me" days to every trip.

Hope you see some birds, besides House Sparrows and Rock Pigeons!

~Kathi, who will be in the Atlanta airport next Friday, changing planes

About Bill

Bill of the Birds

Bill Thompson III is the editor of Bird Watcher's Digest by day. He's also a keen birder, the author of many books, a dad, a field trip leader, an ecotourism consultant, a guitar player, the host of the "This Birding Life" podcast, a regular speaker/performer on the birding festival circuit, a gentleman farmer, and a fungi to be around. His North American life list is somewhere between 673 and 675. His favorite bird is the red-headed woodpecker. His "spark bird" was a snowy owl. He has watched birds in 25 countries and 44 states. But his favorite place to watch birds is on the 80-acre farm he shares with his wife, artist/writer Julie Zickefoose. Some kind person once called Bill "The Pied Piper of Birding" and he has been trying to live up to that moniker ever since.